Peer cyberbullying (PCB) has lately received a considerable amount of attention, as it may have negative consequences for the ones involved in it. Those individuals can cope with PCB by using different, more or less efficient, strategies. With this master's thesis I therefore wanted to find out the incidence of PCB among Slovenian high school students. Another construct that is also a subject of more recent research and that has shown significant positive relationships with indicators of psychological wellbeing, is self-compassion. For that reason, I was interested in finding out if (and how) it is related to PCB involvement and coping strategies. The sample of Slovenian high school students, that were included in the study, consisted of 666 students (55, 7 % of girls), aged 15–20 years (M = 17,0). To collect the data, I used three instruments: Revised Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument, The Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire, and Self-Compassion Scale – Youth Version. I translated the latter into Slovenian language. For all instruments, I performed confirmatory factor analyses. Based on these, some modifications were required for the first two instruments. Results showed that more boys were involved in PCB, and that most of the involved students had cyberbully/victim role. Results also showed that the latter group had significantly lower self-compassion than the non-involved students. In contrast to boys, girls involved in PCB were also less self-compassionate. The relationships between self-compassion scales and cyberbullying coping strategies were more complex. In general, girls and victimized students use the strategies more often than boys and cyberbully/victims respectively. Three quarters of students that experience PCB do not report that to anyone in their social circle. The most commonly reported reason is that they do not feel hurt by PCB. In some of the reasons for non-reporting on experiencing PCB, students differ significantly depending on their gender and their role in PCB. The students that do tell someone, usually lean on friends, but rarely on their teachers. Based on the results of this research, I propose measures related to raising awareness among students and teachers about appropriate responses to PCB and strategies to cope with it. I also suggest including activities to strengthen self-compassion in preventive programs.
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